Church of St Guthlac

Church of St Guthlac

This is a parish church of considerable architectural importance, originating in the 12th century with substantial additions and alterations through the late 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, and a major restoration and vestry addition in 1853. The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with some render, and features lead and decorative tiled roofs.

The church comprises a clerestoried nave with aisles, a western tower, chancel, south porch and vestry. The most prominent feature is the three-stage 15th-century tower, which rises from a moulded plinth with two string courses. It is topped with an embattled parapet and has stepped corner buttresses bearing blank shields. The belfry stage contains single louvred openings with hollow chamfered surrounds, while the middle stage has single two-light windows with quatrefoils and trefoil heads. A notable decorative element is a grotesque pig mask carved on a common wall stone on the south side. To the west, a continuously moulded door surround with hood featuring human head stops leads to a four-light window above with brattished transom and hollow chamfered surround. Above this sits a niche containing a carved saint beneath a crocketed canopy.

The north aisle dates to the 15th century and features large three-light windows, triangular-headed to the west, all with panel tracery. A continuously moulded triangular-headed doorway also survives. The clerestory contains five matching three-light windows. At the north-east angle of the nave stands a stair turret topped with a short spire and crocket.

The chancel has 12th-century origins, rendered, with pilaster buttresses, though it now has a 15th-century parapet. Its north wall contains a single round-headed 12th-century light flanked by two single 15th-century three-light windows with panel tracery. The east wall of the 19th-century vestry contains a reset 12th-century window. The splendid late 13th-century east window comprises five lights with three geometric circular panels to the head. On the south side are two 15th-century windows and a 12th-century shafted doorway with scalloped capitals and chamfered reveals. Immediately above it rises a tall late 13th-century lancet with moulded hood. The parapet contains a section of 12th-century carving with three small round heads. A blocked pointed doorway is visible in the east wall of the south aisle.

The south aisle dates to the 15th century and contains three three-light windows with panel tracery, one with triangular head. Its clerestory matches the north aisle. The gabled 19th-century south porch has octagonal reveals and a single chamfered arch. Beyond it is a blocked window, and to the west a further 15th-century three-light window.

The interior is equally rich. The nave has five bays with arcades featuring 14th-century quatrefoil filleted shafts with contemporary annular capitals on the south, but 15th-century chamfered capitals to the north. Both sides have double chamfered arches. A tall 15th-century recessed tower arch is now fitted with chamfered corbels. The chancel arch is 15th-century with double chamfering, octagonal reveals and chamfered capitals. Two blocked doorways to the rood loft remain on the north side. The east wall of the south aisle contains a blocked doorway with moulded reveals. The north aisle preserves many fragments of round-headed blank niches, probably from a scalloped corbel table.

The nave and aisle roofs are 15th-century with reduced crown posts, moulded principals and ties resting on corbels bearing blank shields. These roofs are decorated with gilded angels and grotesque heads at the intersections. In the chancel, the rear arches of two further 12th-century windows are visible in the north wall, along with a late 13th-century Y-traceried aumbry. The south wall contains a 19th-century triangular-headed piscina. Behind the altar is a 12th-century round-headed reliquary cupboard. The chancel roof matches the nave but features a brattished wall plate.

The fittings are notable. A fine 15th-century oak chancel screen of five bays survives, the middle bay wider and originally with doors. It has a brattished top with panel tracery and crocketed ogees, and the central ogee depicts the donor and his wife. A restored 15th-century octagonal pulpit has a moulded cornice and crocketed ogees to the traceried panels. An excellent 15th-century octagonal font features elaborate traceried panels to its bowl and stem, set on a double stepped plinth. Part of a 14th-century font from the former St Michael's Chapel, Fenne, also survives. At the west end of the nave, a royal coat of arms in cast metal is mounted on the roof truss. Two commandment boards occupy the east wall of the nave. Two mid-19th-century marble wall plaques in the Greek taste are set in the chancel as monuments.